Free Technology Academy and Free Software Foundation partner

October 26, 2010 6:26 pm

Free Software Foundation (FSF) News: ﻿﻿The Free Technology Academy (FTA) and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced today their partnership in the FTA’s Associate Partner Network. The Network aims to expand the availability of professional educational courses and materials covering the concepts and applications of free software and free standards.

The FTA consists of an advanced virtual campus with course modules which can be followed entirely on-line. The learning materials are all published under a free license and can be accessed by anyone, but learners enrolled in the FTA will be guided by professional teaching staff from one of the three participating universities. The FTA aims to enable IT professionals, students, teachers and decision makers to undertake accredited professional education modules in free software studies.
One of the FTA objectives is to establish a strong relationship with the free software community and to turn the FTA course materials into an essential reference. The FTA seeks to educate and promote the adoption of free technologies without losing sight of the free software community’s core purpose of freedom and social transformation.

Wouter Tebbens, president of the Free Knowledge Institute and director of the FTA, explains: “We are building this master’s programme on free software with the support from relevant organisations and community members. And in this sense it is an honour for us to have the support of Richard Stallman and the FSF. We hope to be of use to the community and we invite the community to participate in our courses and review our materials.”

Richard Stallman, leader of the free software movement and president of the Free Software Foundation, said, “The FTA course materials teach people to use GNU/Linux; more than that, it teaches them to recognize why this is important.”

Details of the Partnership:

The FSF will provide special video guest lectures in FTA courses.

The FSF will encourage volunteers to collaborate in the maintenance of existing materials and the production of new courses.